


Devil in Disguise [Bonus]

by mckvch (RaiseYourVoice)



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Child Murder, Crime Scenes, Extended Scene, Law Enforcement, M/M, Serial Killers, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-12 09:07:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18007988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaiseYourVoice/pseuds/mckvch
Summary: “Do you happen to know where Lieutenant Anderson is? I need to speak to him.”“No fucking clue and I also don’t fucking care,” the guy said eloquently and focused his attention back on the screen of his computer, basically punching the letters on the keyboard at this point. Apparently, detective Reed deemed this conversation to be over.Markus opened his mouth again but before he could ask another question to figure out if the detective actually didn’t know about Anderson’s whereabouts or if he simply couldn’t be bothered to tell,  the curly-haired detective and partner of the lieutenant rounded the corner.Author's note:This is just an addition to the main story and basically Markus' POV for some of the scenes or maybe a few additional ones outside of his encounters with Connor, I'm not sure yet.The chapter titles will be according to the ones in the main story so you know where the scenes belong chronologically.





	1. February 5, 2028

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Devil in Disguise](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17409944) by [mckvch (RaiseYourVoice)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaiseYourVoice/pseuds/mckvch). 



**February 5, 2028**

With a sigh, Markus rubbed a hand over the back of his head, absently noticing that he would need to shave his hair again in the near future, before climbing out of the car and taking a quick glance at all the people milling around.

It was only his second week on the new job, working with the Detroit Police Department, and already he found himself at the first crime scene. Not only that but the victim was an eight-year-old boy since the police apparently had a child-murdering serial killer on their hands as of recently.

“Come on, the body is over there,” his older colleague and the chief of pathology prompted him with a wave of his hand and Markus quickly walked around the car to grab their equipment before following his direct supervisor to the victim that was lying at the side of a riverbank, currently covered with a black sheet to hide it from view and possible contamination.

When Markus reached the body, Carl Manfred, the chief pathologist, had already flipped back the black sheet to take a look at the victim with a frown and an attentive gaze. His gloved fingers reached out to slightly touch the dead boy’s head, tilting it a small bit before pulling an eyelid back with his thumb to take a look at the eye.

Markus swallowed thickly because this was his first encounter with a dead child and while he was by now pretty adapted to seeing dead bodies, seeing the little boy all lifeless and discoloured was definitely something else, even in this line of work. 

He pushed his unease aside, though, and put down their equipment to tug on his own gloves before joining his colleague in a crouched position to aid mister Manfred with the examination and listen to him reciting the parallels to the other two dead boys that had been found prior to this.

*******

Markus had accompanied mister Manfred to his car and put the equipment back into the trunk before walking back to the crime scene. The chief of pathology already wanted to get back to the precinct to prepare everything in the lab for a proper examination and the autopsy while Markus was supposed to stick around to talk to the leading officers of the case, brief them on the state of affairs and then join their colleagues that would bring the body to the DPD for the examination.

When he was walking back to where the body of the victim was still in the same position as before, Markus spotted two new faces at the scene—an older man with a scruffy beard and very grumpy expression and a much younger man, probably around his own age, who was currently crouched down next to the dead boy, examining him.

“ He was pinned to the creek-bed with sticks to keep him submerged and the current of the creek isn’t that strong so the sticks were enough to keep him in place,” Markus informed who he assumed were the leading officers he was supposed to wait for and he came to a stop next to the younger man.

Dark brown eyes met his own, pausing for a split second and then flickering across his face and Markus caught himself inappropriately noticing how ridiculously handsome the other man was with his gelled back brunette hair and a bunch of moles scattered across his face.

“And you are?” The man inquired after a beat of silence, not paying any mind to Markus’ statement for now and, fair enough, he probably should have introduced himself first before briefing his colleagues on the victim’s state.

“Markus Jackson, I’m the new forensic pathologist for the homicide department. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He smiled lightly but kept the expression polite because this definitely wasn’t the time for appearing cheerful since there was still the body of a dead child on the ground in front of them and Markus definitely didn’t even feel right about the current, faint upturn of his lips.

“Detective Connor Avery and this is my partner, Lieutenant Hank Anderson,” the other man introduced himself and his partner, nodding up at Markus from his still crouched position and the forensic pathologist almost gave in to the dumb urge to offer his hand but a handshake really wasn’t the best idea right now.

“Pinned to the creekbed with sticks, you say. So drowning wasn’t the cause of death, I presume?”

“No. I’ve yet to examine the victim more thoroughly, obviously, but it’s safe to say that the boy was dead before he was discarded in the water,” Markus informed the two men and resisted the urge to scratch the back of his neck with his fingers because he didn’t really know what to do with his hands right now and the almost cool demeanour of the detective was throwing him off a little, if he was being completely honest, but he wasn’t going to let that interfere with doing his job properly. 

“The ropes were attached antemortem, easy to tell by the colour and extent of the bruising that shows signs of a struggle,” Markus added and stepped around the victim now, crouching down as well to point out the said discolourations at the boy’s wrists and ankles that were still tied together by a rope that was keeping the body in a curled up position on its side.

Detective Avery merely hummed in reply to his words but didn’t add anything, appearing to have known that bit already and Markus realised that, obviously, the other man was able to read such signs on a body as well after surely being on the job for at least a few years.

“I estimate that he must have been in the creek for two to three days, four at the most.” Markus looked down at the lifeless child in front of him, eyebrows involuntarily drawing together because his chest still felt tight at the sight of it, at the thought of this innocent kid being tortured and killed by someone who was still somewhere out there, maybe looking for their next victim.

“I will be able to narrow the timeframe down to at least an exact day as soon as I get the victim into my lab for a proper examination.” It was hard to tell the time of death since they didn’t know if the boy had been discarded into the river right away after being killed or if it had been much later than that. The cool water had altered the usual signs of death on the body and since it was a child, the fact that there was apparently no rigor mortis didn’t tell much—postmortem rigidity was never as distinct in young children anyway due to their smaller muscular mass so an autopsy was definitely necessary to figure out how long exactly the boy had been dead.

Markus suppressed a sigh while he was still looking at the boy and he automatically reached for the black sheet to tug it back over the exposed body but he stopped his movement before grabbing the sheet, glancing up at the detective. “May I?”

Only when detective Avery nodded his okay did Markus finally grab the sheet and tug it back over the child, covering the pale, lifeless shape up before getting up on his feet again. The autopsy would definitely be  _ fun _ with the way he already felt upon just looking at the child but Markus would push past his discomfort since he had chosen to do this job and it was essential to do it well in order to help find the person who did this. Preventing this from happening again certainly was a successful motivator.

“You know where they pulled the body out?”

Markus had almost forgotten that the detective’s partner was at the scene as well and he looked at the scruffy looking man who’s voice sounded just about as gruff as his looks led to believe. The forensic pathologist simply pointed the two men in the right direction where two officers and someone else from the forensic team were currently wading through the creek in search of more evidence.

Before they went off to the creek, the detective’s eyes briefly found Markus’ again and he couldn’t help but feel analysed by the other man’s intense stare and even when detective Avery had already turned his back and followed his partner, Markus found his own gaze glued to the man’s back until his colleagues showed up and asked if the body was ready to be moved into the truck and transported back to the precinct.


	2. February 7, 2028

**February 7, 2028**

Markus felt a little bit drained after spending the better part of the night awake, thinking about the last day that mister Manfred and he had spent doing the autopsy on the eight-year-old boy, Isaac Owen Grayson. He had even needed a short break in the middle of the said autopsy because it had just been pretty damn hard to have a dead child on the examination table and at least mister Manfred had been the one to cut the chest open and crack the ribcage because Markus admittedly wasn’t sure he would have been able to do that.

On one hand, it was certainly a good thing he hadn’t gotten any experience in dealing with dead children so far but on the other hand, it also made him very unfit and useless for his first case with the DPD because he wasn’t supposed to be squeamish about his damn job.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” mister Manfred said, dragging him back from his gloomy thoughts. The older man was leaning against the now empty examination table, relaxedly sipping a steaming cup of coffee while his eyes flickered over the report in his hand, the one they had prepared the evening before. “It’s always harder when children are involved. Even I don’t think this particular case is an easy one and I’ve been on the job a little longer than you.”

It was certainly nice to hear that even someone who had done this line of work for at least thirty years was still affected by it but Markus still felt like he should be doing better and be of more use to this case. Especially because it did involve children, it was all the more important for this case to be solved as quickly as possible—not that adult victims made it a less pressing matter but there was still a different air about a case that resulted in innocent, helpless children dying.

“How about you get this report to Lieutenant Anderson? I’ll take another look at the body and the previous reports,” the chief of pathology suggested and held the report out to Markus. While the words sounded like a question, the air around the older man made it quite clear that there wasn’t much of a choice for Markus in this and his shoulders slumped a little bit.

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered and took the report, feeling a little bit dejected because he had been so excited to be able to work under Carl Manfred, one of the best pathologists at least in Michigan and now he felt like he was failing spectacularly at making a good impression.

Markus had graduated best of his class and his teachers had always told him that he had very good instincts and the smarts to handle even trickier cases but clearly this was a slightly different calibre than school or even his fours years of work experience hadn’t been able to prepare him for something like this.

Why did the first case have to be with dead children, of all things?!

He left the lab and headed upstairs to the area with all the cubicles where the detectives and officers had their desks. Markus had only been in the area rather briefly during his first day when he had been shown around the place so he had to search for a little until he found the desk with the _Lieutenant Hank Anderson_ name-plate sitting at its edge. The desk next to it had _Detective Connor Avery_ written on the plate, obviously, since the two were partners. Both desks were currently vacant and Markus wondered if he should just wait around but it would probably be better to ask someone else around in case the two were currently out in the field.

“Excuse me?” He stepped up to the nearest occupied desk and smiled politely at the sourly looking man currently hammering away at his keyboard and maybe he shouldn’t have addressed this guy but now it was too late for that realisation…

“What?!” The man barked at him and Markus raised his eyebrows.

Someone was clearly having a bad day. His eyes briefly flickered to the name-plate _Detective Gavin Reed_ before they settled back on the man squinting up at him with unhidden annoyance.

“Do you happen to know where Lieutenant Anderson is? I need to speak to him.”

“No fucking clue and I also don’t fucking care,” the guy said eloquently and focused his attention back on the screen of his computer, basically punching the letters on the keyboard at this point. Apparently, detective Reed deemed this conversation to be over.

Markus opened his mouth again but before he could ask another question to figure out if the detective actually didn’t know about Anderson’s whereabouts or if he simply couldn’t be bothered to tell,  the curly-haired detective and partner of the lieutenant rounded the corner.

 _Detective Connor Avery_ , Markus reminded himself and he was glad he had glanced at the name-plate a moment ago since he had always been bad at remembering names after hearing them once but seeing them written down somehow helped a lot, making it easier for him to remember. He certainly was the type of person that was a visual learning type, not necessarily aural or verbal.

“Lieutenant Anderson,” he called out to the older man who still looked as gruff as the other day at the crime scene, his grey hair and beard looking a little unkempt. The man’s slightly tired eyes flickered to him and so did those of detective Avery. “Mister Manfred instructed me to deliver the autopsy report to you.”

Anderson had appeared wary but that definitely managed to gain his attention and the man was in front of Markus in two long strides and snatched the report from his grasp while Avery stepped to his desk to set down his coffee mug. The detective nodded thankfully at Markus for getting the report to them while Anderson frowned at the papers in his hands.

“Again with the rose petals? What the hell’s up with that shit?!” The lieutenant exclaimed, clearly having read the part about the stomach contents and Markus merely shrugged a little, aware that the question wasn’t directed at anyone.

“Maybe they think it’s poetic?”

The young forensic pathologist glanced at Avery who had settled into his chair by now, his brown eyes narrowed thoughtfully and Markus felt like an idiot for noticing that the other man had a quite pretty face—soft features, long lashes, intense brown eyes and a scattering of moles all over his fair skin.

Realising that his job here was actually done and the two men clearly didn’t seem to need his attendance for reading the report, Markus cleared his throat awkwardly and took a step back before turning around to leave since the attention was on the report now and he didn’t feel like interrupting just to say his goodbye.

Markus usually wasn’t this awkward in social situations but today was just one of these days where he felt off-kilter and incapable of the simplest interactions. He absently rubbed a hand across his buzzed hair while leaving the office area, still catching Anderson’s disgusted “Poetic, really? It’s just sick, that’s what this is” and he could only agree to that statement. Though he didn’t necessarily think Avery’s suggestion of the killer using rose petals to be poetic was completely absurd.

*******

‘You could join me and Traci if you need some distraction.’

Markus barely bit back the urge to correct the statement to _Traci and I_ but he knew North would verbally behead him for that and he wasn’t in the mood to kickstart that discussion again. Not today.

“Thanks for the offer but I’d rather not interrupt your date-night and I’m not in the mood to be the third wheel either,” he dismissed with a sigh, sinking further back into his couch while his right hand was toying with the freshly opened beer bottle resting on top of his thigh. “I’m just going to stay in, maybe watch a documentary and then head to bed early. Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

The sigh from the other end of the line was more intense than strictly necessary but he knew North only wanted to convey how stupid she thought he was being. Not that she wouldn’t also let him know with her words as well but she liked to be dramatic like that.

‘Don’t be an idiot. You’ve never been the third wheel and you very well know that Traci wouldn’t mind. We rarely spend any time together since you moved and if you need company after a crappy day at work, say so instead of acting like the tortured hero in your personal drama called life,’ his best friend and ex-girlfriend said and Markus could almost hear North rolling her eyes at him.

Yeah, they definitely hadn’t worked out as a couple but it had turned out that they were very compatible as close friends. Mostly because they were completely different—North kicked his ass whenever Markus was being too polite and soft-spoken again while he kept North from going head first through the wall and punching people before trying to reason with them.

“I’m not acting like a tortured hero and you know I would ask for company but for today, I honestly feel like spending the evening by myself. I just needed to clear my mind a little and talk to someone,” Markus replied and he was being honest. He didn’t need someone here to hold his hand just because he felt off after today’s day at work and he already felt considerably better after telling North about the said day.

Usually, he obviously wasn’t allowed to tell people about his work and current cases of the police but not only did he pay attention to not use any names but he also knew he could trust North completely. They had gotten to know each other when they had both started their training to become pathologists so she was in the same position and knew how to handle such sensitive information.

‘If you say so. But if you change your mind, feel free to contact either of us,’ North added and audibly deflated a little and with the next words, Markus knew a smile was back on her face. ‘Well then, I’ve gotta get ready for my hot date with my hot girlfriend so you go be a sad sack of potatoes and watch some boring documentary on Netflix to demonstrate to all of us that you don’t have a life. Maybe make yourself a cup of hot milk with honey to help you sleep better, tough guy.’

Markus snorted and shook his head but he didn’t take the teasing personally. It was North’s way of showing affection and he appreciated it, odd as it may be. “Love you too. Give Traci a kiss from me and have fun, be safe.”

North replied with a dry ‘Very funny’ before hanging up and Markus shook his head in amusement, throwing his phone onto the cushions next to him and taking a sip of his beer before reaching out to start up Netflix.


End file.
